Move on MSD - Dhoni should retire now...

That Dhoni isn’t the finisher he used to be has been apparent for the last three years. There have been enough instances to show that he’s simply not delivering the knockout blow with the same unerring consistency as before. On occasions, like here in Antigua on Sunday and often in the IPL, he isn’t even lasting till the last round. But Sunday’s 54 off 114 balls with a single boundary, the slowest half-century by an Indian in 16 years, was a frightening illustration of just how much his power-game has slipped and it even invoked comparisons with Sunil Gavaskar’s infamous 36 not out of 160 balls in India’s first-ever World Cup match. Who would have thought one day Dhoni would force one to recall Gavaskar’s worst ODI hour?

For the aura that Dhoni possesses as being the most clinical finisher in the history of ODI cricket, his greatest strength always was finding the boundary when it was required. But way too often, these days as soon as he wants to hit out, he ends up playing a flat and weak shot to either long-on or long-off. Dhoni has spent time working on his bat-swing and the load-up in his stance of late to somehow regain the lost power. But while it seems to work on and off — like on a couple of occasions during his match-winning 74* off 78 balls in the third ODI, which included a powerful straight six — Dhoni is still not connecting his attempted wallops down the ground with the same ferocity as before. As a result, he is trying for newer options and stranger areas to hit the ball into.

The dwindling power in his game has got Dhoni to change his game in recent times. It’s a different Dhoni that walks out to the crease these days, a seemingly more cynical and pessimistic one. It’s as if there’s an overlying fear of not giving up his wicket at any cost, even if it means at times playing in a fashion that is counter-productive to the cause. The fact is that the pitch was tricky and wickets had fallen around him. But there was perhaps some prudence in Dhoni looking to pull the trigger a little early here, or at least take on one of the younger bowlers and put pressure on him.

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